Drum, flow-through or mist humidifier?

Posted by engwar on November 3, 2009, 12:03 am

We're going to have a whole-house humidifier installed. We don't want
to go through another winter with cracked skin and static electricity.
We have a 1970's-era two story house of perhaps 2000 square feet plus
a basement.

We were given a Honeywell Enviracaire elite HE225 flow-through
humidifier by family members who used to have installed on their
furnace. They used it rarely and said they had trouble adjusting it
to a good setting. Not sure if it was user error or just a mediocre
model.

We have a drain as well as electric close to our furnace so we can
install just about any model.

Anyone have any experience with the different types?

Posted by Tony Hwang on November 3, 2009, 12:32 am

engwar wrote:

> We're going to have a whole-house humidifier installed. We don't want
> to go through another winter with cracked skin and static electricity.
> We have a 1970's-era two story house of perhaps 2000 square feet plus
> a basement.
> We were given a Honeywell Enviracaire elite HE225 flow-through
> humidifier by family members who used to have installed on their
> furnace. They used it rarely and said they had trouble adjusting it
> to a good setting. Not sure if it was user error or just a mediocre
> model.
> We have a drain as well as electric close to our furnace so we can
> install just about any model.
> Anyone have any experience with the different types?

Hi,
Tried all 3 types. Our water is very hard. Now I ended up with Aprilaire
flow-thru and IMO, this is the best type. B4 season starts, I clean the
pad with CLR. Humidity is very well maintained per humidistat setting.
Wonder if that Honeywell one has a water flow regulating orifice
mismatched?

Posted by Jim Elbrecht on November 3, 2009, 7:25 am

>engwar wrote:

>> We're going to have a whole-house humidifier installed. We don't want
>> to go through another winter with cracked skin and static electricity.
>> We have a 1970's-era two story house of perhaps 2000 square feet plus
>> a basement.

-snip-

>Tried all 3 types. Our water is very hard. Now I ended up with Aprilaire
>flow-thru and IMO, this is the best type. B4 season starts, I clean the
>pad with CLR. Humidity is very well maintained per humidistat setting.

-snip-

An Aprilaire 600a is my first whole house humidifier- but after years
of messing with dozens of room humidifiers, I have to second Tony's
recommendation.

We just completed one season with it- but our water is super hard but
it worked well all season and I see no signs of calcium on the unit
itself.

Jim

Posted by ransley on November 3, 2009, 6:22 am

> We're going to have a whole-house humidifier installed. =A0We don't want
> to go through another winter with cracked skin and static electricity.
> We have a 1970's-era two story house of perhaps 2000 square feet plus
> a basement.
> We were given a Honeywell Enviracaire elite HE225 flow-through
> humidifier by family members who used to have installed on their
> furnace. They used it rarely and said they had trouble =A0adjusting it
> to a good setting. Not sure if it was user error or just a mediocre
> model.
> We have a drain as well as electric close to our furnace so we can
> install just about any model.
> Anyone have any experience with the different types?

April Air has a model with an outdoor thermometer, you set the control
in the house to just below the point of condensation on glass and it
will maintain the correct amount of humidity by tracking outside temp,
its a set and forget unit. Without this feature you will be constantly
adjusting humididty.

Posted by on November 3, 2009, 8:30 am

> > We're going to have a whole-house humidifier installed. =A0We don't wan=

> > to go through another winter with cracked skin and static electricity.
> > We have a 1970's-era two story house of perhaps 2000 square feet plus
> > a basement.
> > We were given a Honeywell Enviracaire elite HE225 flow-through
> > humidifier by family members who used to have installed on their
> > furnace. They used it rarely and said they had trouble =A0adjusting it
> > to a good setting. Not sure if it was user error or just a mediocre
> > model.
> > We have a drain as well as electric close to our furnace so we can
> > install just about any model.
> > Anyone have any experience with the different types?

> April Air has a model with an outdoor thermometer, you set the control
> in the house to just below the point of condensation on glass and it
> will maintain the correct amount of humidity by tracking outside temp,
> its a set and forget unit. Without this feature you will be constantly
> adjusting humididty.

Agree with Ransley and the others that have recommended Aprilaire. I
have the 760 and it was trouble free for 12 years until I dropped it
during servicing. Doh! Now I have the 760A which is the new
version. All I ever did was change the evaporator panel about every
2-3 years.

As Ransley said, it has an outdoor temp probe that automatically
reduces the humidity level as the temp outside drops. Really nice
feature. Given that you can get this top of the line unit for $220 or
so and the work of installing it, IMO it doesn't make sense to fool
around with some hand me down unit. Suppose you cut a hole for it,
then it doesn't work. Different unit will likely have a diff size
opening, etc.

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